Prostheses for the repair of vascular defects, including for example vascular aneurysms, are well known in the art. A common prosthesis for treatment of such a medical condition is a stent-graft.
Prostheses of this type are typically deployed endoluminally through a vein or artery adjacent a surface of a patient. For example, aortic prostheses are commonly fed through the femoral artery. A common method of deployment involves the location of a guide wire along the path to be followed by the introducer assembly, up to the site in the vasculature to be treated. Once the guide wire is in place, a series of catheters is advanced along the guide wire, finally with the introduction of a catheter assembly which carries the stent or stent-graft to be fitted. The catheters have sufficient trackability to follow the guide wire along the curves and turns of the patient's vasculature and some can also curve sufficiently so as to be able to fit a stent-graft, for example, into the aortic arch of a patient.
Even though such a procedure is possible into the aortic arch, it is mired in difficulties as a result of the tight curvature of the latter. One such difficulty arises in connection with the proximal end of the stent-graft, which is liable to be incorrectly fitted such that it incompletely seals around the inner wall of the aorta as a result of the curvature imparted to the stent-graft. This can lead to leakage of blood around the outside of the stent-graft and thus of a less than effective treatment. Furthermore, as a result of the non-optimal placement of the stent-graft using known procedures, there is a limit to the length of neck of healthy vascular wall which is needed to provide a seal around the proximal end of the stent-graft. This limits the application of such stent-grafts, in particular for the treatment of aneurysms close to a branch vessel. In addition, in some instances at least, a part of the proximal end of the stent-graft can remain loosely located in the vessel, leading to premature fatigue failure and thrombus effects.
Attempts have been made to resolve these difficulties. For instance, in the applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 6,974,471, mechanisms are described for imparting a curvature to the stent-graft at the moment of its deployment.
A number of other types of device seek to provide medical devices which can be curved in situ but these are not related to the deployment of stents or stent-grafts or able to be used in any such application. Such other devices are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,602,288, US-2006/0,129,101, U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,713, U.S. Pat. No. 6,270,496, U.S. Pat. No. 5,219,358, US-2006/0,074,403 and WO-00/33,909.